as the main presidential candidates in the u.s. make their last ditch attempts to curry favor and crucial swing states party prepares to give the floor to those also running for the top job of being left out of the spotlight. greece gears up to grind to a halt as people from all walks of life start a week of strikes and protests at a government set to cut spending even further. to the u.n. resolution in syria is certainly desiring to end a good gravy situation and create a basis for regime change russia accuses western and arab states of encouraging the syrian opposition to step up their fight instead of looking for ways to stop the bloodshed.

and welcome to r t starting your monday off with me karen terrill chand our team well we start at the u.s. presidential race where barack obama and mitt romney are in their final dash to win votes in the so-called battleground states polls put their rivals neck and neck on forty eight percent each in the heat of an extremely tough campaign most americans forget they actually have a bigger choice than just two candidates and artie's been reminding them of the alternatives. here it is the venue for the next presidential debate with the alternative candidates in this election our studio in washington d.c. though it's not very big as you can see will make sure there is lots of room for discussion on issues that somehow don't fit into the mainstream media discourse here alternatives to obama and romney have effectively been pushed out of the major

national debates we ask how and why. pushed out and quite literally jule styne presidential nominee from the green party was arrested on the day of the second presidential debate between mitt romney and barack obama in mid october right outside the venue where it took place she was there protesting her exclusion from the debate we were tightly bound with plastic restraints and tied to chairs for eight hours for daring to stand up and demand open debates turn out of presidential candidates had their own debate in chicago they brought up issues which the big party candidates never came close to discussing like the legislation signed by president obama which allows the government to indefinitely detain american citizens without charge or due process and an incredible pull the trail of our civil liberties and foreign policy the alternative candidates argue there's practically no difference between mitt romney and barack obama regardless of

whether or not romney gets elected or obama gets elected three things are going to happen we're going to find ourselves with a continued heightened police state in this country we're going to find ourselves continuing to militarily intervene in the world which results has resulted in hundreds of millions of enemies to this country that wouldn't otherwise exist the similarity of views that president obama and mitt romney showed during their foreign policy debate became a matter of numerous jokes on foreign policy it appears that all that's left for the presidential race is this one model. i mean at least we still get our choice of color but. the us mainstream media are entirely focused on the two party race the majority of americans know very little if anything about alternatives jule styne of the green party why sit down with before her arrest is not going to be represented on ballot papers in every state the american system is designed to

eliminate political opposition like some of the you know dictatorships that we criticize that have rigged political systems in many ways the american system is also rigged but in ways that are not as straightforward and with the like of interest from the mainstream media smaller parties see the deck stacked against them in a national vote but not only are americans stuck with a two horse race but they're also not guaranteed to get the president who the majority cast their votes for in the us presidential election a candidate can win the majority of the popular vote and still lose the election because it's not the popular vote but the electoral college that decides the outcome of the presidential election here so how does it work every state but maine and nebraska give the candidate a certain number of points and the winner has to collect the magic number two hundred seventy points even if a candidate loses a state by just say three votes they get zero points that's how george w.

bush won the election in the year two thousand although he lost in the popular vote he won due to the tricky state to stay score system according to gallup poll a record forty percent of americans now identify themselves as independents the chief of the federal election commission under george w. bush michael toner told me in the us alike troll system i don't have much choice if you moved away from a winner take all electoral system and once or proportional representation i think you would have far more successful political parties here in the states because there are a large number of americans actually the most. most of the biggest share biggest increase in voter registration today in america is not democrats it's not republicans it's independents if you look at the states large numbers of people now are identifying it as an independent now they often will vote pretty reliably republican or democrat but that's a pretty good indication that there's

a million tens of millions of people who if they had their choice might pick another party but one group that stands to win from the lack of choice spied the corporations that contribute lavishly to political campaigns trying to buy support for their companies what we have in this country in many respects is covert corruption legalise corruption in the political system itself being held hostage by special interests is a form of corruption each candidate on the republican and democratic side now spend nearly a billion dollars each in order to get to the white house i mean i think our founding fathers would be spending it in their graves if they could see this while in office mr toner oversaw a campaign finance of the elections the most sophisticated companies what they do is they're in good shape no matter who wins right they hire lobbyists on both sides of the aisle right they often make political contributions both sides of the aisle

this is called hedging your bets here in america as you would say in los vegas. and in vegas as they say no matter how you play the house always wins speaking of us selections one could say no matter how you vote business as usual wins it won't be business as usual during the alternative can of this debate this monday night the candidates will be here in this studio were chosen by online voters as the winners of the last third party debate held in chicago about two weeks ago we brought has that debate live no mainstream us news channel that so an important point to make here is that by giving a media platform to these candidates does not mean that we're indorsing their views it's an honor for us to host the event. we're trying to show what others don't and we also think it's going to get a lot of viewers you're welcome to be one of them i certainly will from our debate ready or almost ready studio here in washington i'm going to. thomas the special event you can watch the third party candidates debate live on monday this evening

at nine pm eastern. will two parties keep us politics a one way street. or will new voices disrupt the power power now. wants if america changes. to its election as guides monday nov fifth on r.t.e. . a series of blasts have ripped through the behind the capital manama killing two people they country has been engulfed in anti-government protests for more than twenty months now but deadly clashes between police and pro-democracy campaigners we're now joined by our correspondent in the region policy or paula what more do we know about the blast and how common are incidents like this in the gulf country as well is series of homemade bombs have exploded as unique capital will ring the city of the nama according to officials at least two people have been told they were asian i'm going one hundred in the country will see hearing from the interior ministry that the blasts happened at two months it is and that at least five dish

anation the device it's still used now state television is the fourteenth he said also acts of terror they certainly are the latest in a series of explosions that have a could in kuwait targeting police forces the government has recently stepped up efforts to try and clell these simmering pro democracy demonstrations that have been taking place in the race since early last year and just last week the government announced that it would be no public gatherings and no rallies because it says these were violations or it's great to public safety and this has been condemned by amnesty international which states it is a violation of freedom of speech and freedom of expression what the is interesting is that bomb sent target civilians has launched the until now been quite uncommon in bahrain although we are seeing these protests that have not actually gone unnoticed in the international we know that the ruling family there has

a close ally. well the united states let's stop and look forward as the reasoning as to why the one place that has been in this country for at least two years is not the look which ones fissioning. live from tel aviv with the latest developments artie's policy while the protests in bahrain are the only country washington's being accused of double standards over. us does not want to see its control over the region slip away by something as a good leader as the democratic aspirations of the people the white house turns a blind eye to thousands of protesters in kuwait while at the same time praising the opposition forces in the countries such as syria. russia's foreign minister says western efforts over syria are solely aimed at inflaming the situation on the ground and carrying out change said gay lover of also said such a position is only leading to further bloodshed in the rest of country artie's lucy

coffin of has the details. sergey lavrov is on a middle east tour after a tenuous cease fire in syria broke down during a tragically so during the holiday of aid from the very same day as russia is trying to restart diplomatic efforts to come to some sort of diplomatic solution to the syria crisis members of the fractured syrian opposition groups are meeting in qatar under u.s. backed efforts to bring together a new opposition leadership a government this is something that people have interpreted to mean a splintering of the international community on how to resolve the syrian crisis that has earned the title quite harsh remarks from the foreign minister he had said that he had urged and comments to the press for folks to stick together to the agreements that the international community had come to in june that in the geneva declaration which had called among other things the creation of a transitional governing body he also interfering to this u.s.

backed effort sensually accuse the west for giving up on their commitments by refusing to work with the syrian government on the issue working only with the opposition which he says is quote a path to a very dire situation. in geneva four months ago we all agreed to count was we'll say the same to the warring sides in syria. this is exactly what russia is doing saying this to both the government and opposition groups whose some other nations both western and regional telling the opposition go game for eating fuel causes great you will win it's up to you to decide whose position is creating the danger of more and more deaths in syria. pressure the system has the force been to come to some sort of a diplomatic non military solution to this tragic crisis which unfortunately continues to unfold a day by day with more tragedies more casualties reported on

a nearly daily. basis the israeli army is on alert after the fighting in neighboring syria or it's closer to its border israel is increasingly concerned the conflict in the arab nation could become its business as well and as it explains there are fears that a change in certain power could lead to another war in the region. remember this. this. generation of young people. suffering trying. to dispel a country in just under two years the rage against dictators seems to have turned in a new direction. the capital of the caliphate the capital of the united states the arabs. the arab spring uprisings primarily sought to do away with their own regimes they now own creasing we seem to turn against israel with the old leaders out of the pictures the first new governments

little to do with the old ways of tacit compliance if not friendship with israel's existence apparent that didn't escape israel should get used to a different middle east for all means and. i think that the most important thing is the barak and the coming to the fore with the muslim brothers it is definitely definitely much more difficult middle east for israel spruance of the revolutionary spirits which took over the region appear to have shot up even in places considered soon by israel here in the golan heights some twenty thousand jews consider themselves syrian their home country is just across the road has a daily reminder of the home they have lost and though it may be in the grips of a civil war many of them with gladly make their home in a stable syria rather than in israel golan heights where an exit by israel during the six day war with syria forty five years ago. though the current unrest in syria

is viewed differently by residents of this village and they are united by one thought. israel is a stable country but we in our historic you are part of the syrian nation and it's our culture we want to be on the syrian authority even under this oppressive regime we want to be part of syria before the civil war took over damascus was said to be involved in talks over a peace accord with israel clinton's time ones to power in syria be transferred to the opposition the result will hardly mean peace and stability for tel aviv of course when assad was in full control of the family in syria knew what it's going to get from the us and family so to speak i mean the notion was what you see is what you what you see is what you get. all the residents of the golan heights and the future of territory is much clearer in this period of the arab spring they too are prepared to burn bridges was your last hope for you i

would. go and we'll go back to syria what was taken and we'll have to come back and . if we go. golan heights i want to come including the recent police crackdown on protesters in kuwait right here on our team after a quick break. usually the police and occupy protesters are like oil and water but in atlanta they've come together to save the house of a former detective jacqueline barber unfortunately ms barber lost a lot of money battling cancer and was facing eviction which she turned to occupy homes for help so far she's managed to stay in her home despite it being sold out from under her feet but the main thing is that her fight to stay in her home has

become like a bridge between two groups who are usually at each other's throats the police and occupiers the thing is the cruel economic practices can affect us all even retired police like ms barber i know there are some irresponsible people who buy things they can't pay for and here the police have to do something about them but they shouldn't throw you out of your home that you've paid for for years just for getting cancer no one should have to live with the constant fear that their home will be taken away after years and years of payment just because they got sick and america i thought we believed in private property not eternally renting from big banks but that's just my opinion. well good. science technology innovation all the list of elements from

around russia we've got the future covered. the news sigrid laboratory tim curry was able to build a new most sophisticated robot which all unfortunately doesn't give a darn about anything turns mission to teach me the creation and why it should care about humans and worry that this is why you should care only on the dot com. do we speak your language any time of the will or not a day of. news programs and documentaries in spanish more matters to you breaking news a little turn a tip angles couldn't stories. you hear. that try to alter the spanish find out more visit.

well welcome back to our team lot from moscow i'm karen town local activists in kuwait say security forces have detained dozens of pro-democracy campaigners and the latest clampdown on a rally in the gulf nation riot police used stun grenades and smoke bombs against

thousands of demonstrators who defied a ban on public gatherings protesting against new voting rules now position claims changes in the electoral system hand an advantage to the pro-government candidates in next month's election sunday's rally became the faired major protest in the past few days geo political analyst eric draitser says gulf monarchies confidently take on the democratic national comfortable in the knowledge they have the support of the us the government is terrified look at the protest movement developing in saudi arabia one that's continued to go out and bought rain we see the same around the arab world more generally and kuwait looks at itself or rather the government does and they see that they really stand no chance at maintaining our maintaining control of that country unless they are able to successfully suppress the end repress the opposition these are client states of the united states bahrain as is the u.s. fifth fleet in the navy kuwait as we although the role that it played in both wars

against iraq kuwait is very much dependent on saudi arabia and the united states and so all of this is part of a geo political calculus of us that germany us does not want to see its control over the region slip away by something as piddling as the democratic aspirations of the people of the region. and on the line we've lined up the latest on the unrest coming from another arab country with libya being more and more into violence after rival militants fired rocket propelled grenades in tripoli marking the last security crackdown since the ousting of former leader mark down more on that at r.t. dot com. from ben man to bank clerics greece is set to come to a standstill as a week of strikes and protests has started in the debt ridden country it comes as the government plans to vote for a fresh off staring package of cost cuts and tax hikes in order to get another cash injection from its international creditors peter are very. well it's been rather

ominous lee called the devil's week in some parts of the greek media nuts due to the fact that nobody really knows what state greece is going to emerge from the coming days worth of protests strikes the potentially crippling austerity measures now the first strikers have walked we've seen talk to drivers some journalists and others walking out on monday the main strikes though taking place on tuesday and wednesday that's when the main labor unions get involved taking industrial action and be out on the streets of athens as well as other cities around greece to protest against what they see as unfair measures being taken by the greece gover greek government as the government looks to say team point five billion euros the reason that greece is having to do this is that they've been told to do this by their main creditors the so-called troika on sunday opposition politicians put it

to mr summers why didn't you negotiate the terms of this next round of austerity measures with our creditors and he said well do you need negotiators because it wasn't for negotiation this was dictated to him by greece's lenders this prompted the opposition to say that they wanted to see new elections in greece and they called on the. people to use the demonstrations coming up over the next few days to rise up peacefully and take back their country has the u.k.'s eye for a clash with its partners over how much britain pays for its membership it seems there are still a chance to save taxpayers money back at home it's been revealed that m.p.'s there are spending tens of thousands of pounds flying to exotic destinations on so-called fact finding mission artists our fourth the firth explains. rio china miami we might all dream of getting off to some exotic destination but unfortunately in the middle of

a double dip recession with thirty measures. we're being kept to ground. for some lucky and peace even just think of the some of those far flung destinations of fact finding missions one fact that has been found is that these trips costing millions in taxpayers' pounds so take a look at the figures they regularly come in at more than forty thousand pounds per trip one ship singapore in china cost a whopping seventy two thousand pounds something has clearly gone wrong when you have a coach trip costing eight to ten thousand pounds per member of parliament on the trip there either. staying in luxury hotels when they could look at more modest accommodation or they're using business class travel when they can travel most of the rest of us not surprisingly the public's not impressed i certainly think it's excessive and i think they i can't say taking the piss but they're taking advantage

there's absolutely no question. that because i find a good place if you have the patience to look on the right side and if the m.p.'s need some advice on how to save the pennies the public has advice for the. central meaning you know you're ok. i think. we'd all love to get so into the stones that to help us deal with the economic crisis those excessive expenditure is going to leave many m.p.'s looking like they've simply got their heads in the clouds so the london bar stories are available on our website at r.t. dot com including a big in business big game come on we've got the story of one supermodel and her billionaire husband planning to stage an elephant badge to mark the tycoon's fiftieth birthday. was painted black and orange had.

the story of one repeat her station perfectly colored hollowing. case of wiki leaks is once again hitting the headlines that's after the us national our comp locked any search attempts containing the name of the whistle blowing web site the move on the recommendation of washington was such a be protecting classified information but leader of the u.k. pirate party believes what happened is a clear sign of censorship. mission of the library of congress is to to preserve a collective body of knowledge the job of any line reached shortly should be to share that knowledge well it's frankly not surprising that such organizations that are under pressure to actually conform to these kind of classification nor but

essentially this is still a censorship and censorship nor is it actually stepping on freedom of speech and we've often see that the united states is very quick to criticize and states a broader stepping on premiums be. able to say to uphold the same standards at home we can see how vital that a principle of whistle blowing in both journalism and for democracy and after a short break our special report on volunteers getting ready for the two thousand and fourteen olympics and the russia city of such. the sun rises over what seems like and lost forest but here in new directions cry for hundred kilometers north of light of all stalk as in much of the world it's

disappearing at a catastrophic rate. mortgages both illegal and those finding ways to outsmart the system for filing down the forests of the more skewed region for them profit goes well beyond the future of our planet and the result could be an ecological crisis the world wildlife fund for nature makes regular trips to help local rangers do what little they can to stop the logging but it's not easy lager set up trucks making them hard to reach in an already rough terrain and have mastered ways to jump through legal loopholes this is a nature reserve we're only sanitary logging of disease trees is allowed according to law and not a single berry can be picked but loggers like this use their sanitary logging permit to cut down absolutely healthy trees and sell the profitable timber over the border in china we are on the hunt for illegal loggers and it's not going to be

easy to forests. and their chances are slim now for now we can stay in our dreams but as soon as we find solid tracks we'll have to drop our wheels and get out silently in order not to scare the loggers off alexander some morning call has been a ranger for over twenty five years he can spend weeks at a time tracking a single group of loggers easier to work when snow falls in autumn it's impossible to find human tracks and even transport tracks are hard to see after hours of driving we get sent in the right direction by word of mouth you can see that the ground is soft here which means that they've twelve's the tractor trails are very fresh which in fact means that we need to be quiet and. or to not scare them off as we get closer. to. these teams as they're legal but have no documents now xander can now call the police to take over his work here is done he's overwhelmed.